- Released: 2019
- Origin: Adelaide, Australia
- Label: Farmer & The Owl
- Best Track: Low Life
Since I’ve started doing this blog I’ve found myself largely filling in the gaps between one Friday and the next with stuff I missed out on last year. And for some reason, a lot of it seems to be Australian.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Bad//Dreems’ third album. I had them down as a punk band, but they’re more alt-rock or even indie on this record. Perhaps I’d read too much into the awesomely acerbic ‘Piss Christ’ which I think was the only track I’d heard off it.
In truth there’s a lot of variety on this album. The first three tracks alone have what we might call ballads either side of ‘Piss Christ’. The opening line to ‘Morning Rain’ (People are stupid/People go round/Fanning the flames while their houses burn down) now sounds hauntingly prophetic, perhaps taking a more literal meaning than the band intended in the light of Australia’s bushfire crisis.
Other tracks, like ‘Sonny’ and ‘Sally’s Place’ have an almost folky tinge, the latter reminding me of Shame, while ‘Low Life’ is a brilliantly post-punky take on living at the bottom of the barrel.
With witty lyrics and covering hard-hitting themes, this is really solid, and much more diverse than I expected. Perhaps one or two skippable songs crop up, but Doomsday Ballet sounds a complete and accomplished record from a confident, well-informed band.
